Michael Jackson is facing a contempt of court charge after he and his lawyers failed to show up for an initial hearing in a sexual-assault lawsuit filed against him, according to news reports Thursday.

In the lawsuit Joseph Thomas Bartucci Jr. alleged that the then 25-year-old Michael Jackson sexually abused him in 1984, cut him with a razor blade and a steel wire. The New Orleans man says he repressed the assault until a 2003 Court TV special on Jackson's molestation case brought it all back.

Bartucci is seeking unspecified damages for a host of ailments he claims were caused by the alleged assault.

Jackson, who was cleared in his child molestation charges on June 13, denies the charges.